The Turkish Government in Ankara gave notice of its intention to upgrade its 200-strong fleet of German and American-made tanks: the contract up for tender reputedly worth around 500 million dollars. Five Turkish companies tendered their bids. Aselsan, an electronics specialist; Roketsan, a missile manufacturer - both state-owned - and three private companies; BMC, Otakar and FNSS, all of whom are Armoured Vehicle producers. The upgrade programme is to be managed by Turkey’s procurement agency and will involve improvements on 40 M60A3s, 40 Leopard IIA4s and 120 M60Ts. The work expected to be carried out includes armour upgrades and installing ‘active protection systems’ and has probably come about because Islamist radicals damaged a number of Turkish tanks during Turkey’s 2016 military incursion into Syria.
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